Reina Anderson, Brookfield's Scholarship Athlete
When one thinks of girls high school rugby in the Midwest, two teams come to mind: Divine Savior Holy Angels and Catholic Memorial. The Wisconsin duo is the standard for their age group, but that doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on talent. Reina Anderson is proof of such. The Wauwatosa East senior has been an influential force during the resurgence of the Brookfield Bruisers, which finished third in Wisconsin last year.
Anderson followed a tried-and-true path to rugby: First, a friend introduces the sport to a female athlete who has always been intrigued by football. Second, athlete hesitates when considering the potential conflict that playing rugby might create with other sports’ commitments. Third, athlete attends first rugby practice, falls in love, and then everything else works itself out.
It also helped that Anderson was a natural.
Meet the Players: All Americans in Las Vegas
The Girls High School All American (GHSAA) program is nearly three years old, but it hasn’t played any real competition. During the previous two summers, Stars & Stripes camps drew the top 50 players from around the country to Colorado, where the attendees experienced a high-performance environment for a week. Those all-star assemblies culminated in inner-squad matches, and in 2014, a 15s All American team was named. But that honor was mostly symbolic, as there have been no fixtures on the schedule – until now.
The GHSAA will make its first-ever appearance at the Las Vegas Invitational (Feb. 12-14), where two 7s teams will compete in the High School Elite division against domestic all-star and international sides. The American public will finally see firsthand what the nation’s best high school athletes look like.
Girls HSAA Team Set for LVI
Release by USA Rugby and Serevi: SEATTLE – The newly established USA Rugby Girls High School All-American (GHSAA) team has named its inaugural roster in advance of the Las Vegas Invitational (LVI), to be played Feb. 13-15. Backed by the sponsorship of Serevi Rugby, during the LVI the GHSAAs will compete as two teams in the High School Girls Elite 7s division. Girls for the teams were selected from the 2014 Stars and Stripes camp and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games team.
“This team is made up of a very strong group of young women who have dedicated themselves on and off the field to be ready for this opportunity,” said Mollie McCarthy, USA Rugby’s GHSAA head coach. “As coaches and players, we couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity at LVI to continue the development of their skills, grow as a team, and compete against the best.”
MN Tundra Take 2 Teams to LVI
There was ample interest in the Girls High School Elite 7s division of the LVI, and the eight-team competition filled up quickly. Unfortunately for teams like the Minnesota Tundra, among others, some all-star teams were kept out of the top tier, but on a positive note, that means the H.S. Open division will be better than ever.
Head coach Jimmy Hanson is bringing two 7s teams to the Las Vegas Invitational. The 22 players hail from seven different teams, with perennial state champion Armstrong supplying 10 athletes.
The most recognizable player wearing the Tundra jersey is Armstrong fullback Renee Gonzales, who was named to the first-ever, 15-player High School All American team last year. Gonzales is a Tundra 15s veteran, as is Hopkins scrumhalf Ellie Fromstein, who played inside center during the Stars & Stripes assembly in 2014.
Girls WA Loggers Ready for Vegas
The Washington Girls Loggers, the state all-star team, has named its squad for an inaugural run at the Las Vegas Invitational High School Elite 7s title, to be contested February 12-13. Five high school teams are represented on the 12-player squad, and Kent accounts for five of those athletes.
The Girls Loggers are also fortunate to add former USA 7s Eagle Katie Dowty to the coaching staff. Dowty is also the assistant coach at Central Washington’s women’s varsity rugby team.
“The girls are extremely lucky to learn from such a talented sevens player,” said Girls Loggers coach Parisa Asgharzadeh.
The team itself showcases a mix of seasoned veterans and rising talents.
Atlantis Names U19 Girls for Vegas
The Atlantis Rugby Corporation and APEX Academy have named its Girls U19 squads for the Las Vegas Invitational (Feb. 12-13). Twenty-four players will be split into two squads - one in the eight-team Serevi High School Girls Elite 7s Division, the other in the 24-team High School Girls Open Division. When included with the Atlantis U16s, the player pool represents 10 states and one Canadian province.
What Does USAR Academy Formation Mean?
The merger of the Eagle Impact Rugby Academy program and Serevi’s Rugby Academy under the name USA Rugby Academy is, in many ways, a logical step for both organizations as well as USA Rugby, but it doesn’t mean others are left out in the cold.
“A lot of other people are doing really good stuff,” said Robin Reid, who backs the EIRA (Reid is also an investor in Goff Communications, the parent company of the Goff Rugby Report). “We’re not in competition with them. We’re all going in the same direction.”
Salty Thompson, the HS All Americans Head Coach and who runs the EIRA sessions, said, as an example, he has purposefully avoided putting an EIRA event in Northern California because the USA International Academy run by Paul Keeler and Eugene Mountjoy do such a good job.
“We’re more interested in working with them as a partner,” he said.
Fullerton Tournament Set for March
The Fullerton High School International Invitational tournament is set for March 14 and 15 in Southern California.
Teams from all over North America take advantage of the warm weather in Fullerton, Calif., to get some rugby in before the spring hits in their home towns. Teams from British Columbia and Ontario, and possibly Mexico, join squads from around California and Washington. The tournament has a robust girls bracket, highlighted by some of the top programs in the country,
In addition, several colleges will be sending coaches to the tournament to scout players.
Serevi has signed on as a sponsor.
Lady Oaks Stronger Every Year
Although Sacramento is the girls high school team to beat in Northern California, Danville is the team to produce an upset. The Bay Area side finished second at last weekend’s Kickoff Tournament and the pre-season bout against the Amazons highlighted a brilliant rivalry that will hopefully bloom for years.
The Lady Oaks have sky-rocketed into notoriety. Only three years old, the team finished 7th at the 2013 High School National Championship, and then followed with a 5th place finish in 2014. Now that players are banking some serious games, the program is growing in confidence every year and already zoning in on this year’s national tournament.
Amazons Headline KOT
Early indications suggest that the Sacramento Amazons are the team to beat, again, in Northern California. The #2 girls’ high school in the nation might seem like an easy pick, but teams like Pleasanton and Danville have banked recent wins against them. But on Saturday’s Kickoff Tournament in Dixon, Calif., no one came close to the Amazons, who exited the day with an unblemished record.
Sacramento’s competition increased throughout the day, beginning with Bowling Green, then Pleasanton, and finally Danville in the last game of the day, the championship, with the sidelines packed.
“It’s still pre-season, and you can tell everyone’s rusty, but there’s a friendly rivalry there,” Sacramento coach Sefesi Green said. “The girls get up for each other.”
Kickoff Tournament Awakens NorCal
Twenty girls high schools will convene at the Sacramento Valley Kickoff Tournament tomorrow, marking the unofficial start to the season in Northern California. Three divisions – gold, silver and bronze – will be in action, but all eyes will be on the four-team top tier for a sneak peak at the region’s heavyweights.
The Amazons headline the Gold Division. The Sacramento side is a veteran of high school nationals and returned to the West Coast with a second-place finish in 2014. More importantly, the Amazons got closer to four-time reigning champion Fallbrook than anyone since 2010, when Sacramento beat the Warriors for the national title.
But last year’s team was senior-heavy, and that’s not the case in 2015.
Reminder: Championship Application Deadline Approaching
The deadline for entry in the 2015 Girls High School National Invitational Championship is quickly approaching. All interested parties must apply by Sunday, Feb. 1 to be considered for inclusion. Click here to access the application and detailed information.
Organized by the National Girls’ Coaches Committee (NGCC) and hosted by the Pittsburgh Harlequins, the 16th annual tournament will be held from Friday-Sunday, May 15-17 in Pittsburgh, Pa. The elite competition features eight-team Division I and Division II championships, and interest will determine the possibility of a DIII championship. This is not a select-side event; combined sides are prohibited and all athletes must be high school students to compete.
2014 Girls High School Awards
Tess Feury had a knockout year in 2014 and outpaced everyone in the Player of the Year category.
Congratulations to our 2014 Girls High School award recipients: Team of Year Fallbrook (San Diego) and Player of the Year Tess Feury. Click here to read more about their accomplishments last year.
Be sure to check out the 2014 Women's National Team Awards (click here) as well as the Women's College Awards (here).
Maryville Bags 3rd State 7s Title
The holidays are that much cheerier for Maryville, which won the girls Tennessee State 7s Championship earlier this month. Even more impressive than its third 7s title is the fact that the team doesn’t even start playing 7s until the conference playoffs – a feat that suggests the Maryville program is churning out some superb rugby players.
The Tennessee Rugby Association (TRA) has been hosting the Olympic 7s series for four years now, and three of those titles have gone to Maryville. But the community-based team takes a different route to the final than its opponents.
“A lot of our girls play soccer for their high schools in the fall, so we get a late start on 7s,” Maryville coach Jay Hawkins said. “With the soccer players starting with that sport in late July, it prevents the club from going to tournaments until the conference playoffs.”
The Grackles: Queens of 7s
Sound like a holiday tale? Not quite, but 2014 has been a magical one for the Oregon girls team. The Grackles – a combination side composed of Grant, Reynolds and Clackamas 15s players – won the state summer 7s championship in its debut year, and then followed with a High School Girls Fall 7s championship this November.
Rugby Oregon runs a well organized, well established 15s competition, and its 7s involvement is quickly catching up. For the girls, 2014 marked the state’s third summer 7s series and second fall 7s league.
“Sevens is extremely popular,” said Grackles assistant coach Val Burns, who helps coach Grant during the 15s season. “There is an uptick with skill at the 7s high school level.”
